The Ultimate Lifeform Slows Down Chapter 20
Shadow POV
When I woke up the next morning the sun was cracking through the curtains slightly. I got up without disturbing Maria and walked over to them. With one sweeping motion I separated them letting the sunlight light up the entire room.
"Hm, wha?" I heard Maria mumble as she woke up. She wiggled her nose in a cute way while doing so.
"Good morning Maria. Did you sleep well?"
"You know I did." She answered with a smile. "Are we still in love?"
"Why wouldn't we be?" I asked back furrowing my brow.
"Well, I heard that sometimes when best friends who become couples have sex for the first time they find out that they don't love each other anymore." She answered. I knelt down next to the bed to get face to face with her.
"Maria, I love you and nothing will ever change that. Yeah, last night probably changed some things, but it's for the better in my opinion." And I kissed her forehead after that. She giggled in that way I love and I knew it was alright.
"Thank you Shady, I just wanted to make sure. So, what are we going to do today?"
"Well, I don't know about you, but I wanted to go to the beach today." I answered with a grin.
"I wanted to do that too, how strange." Maria joked back.
"And then I have something special planned for this evening."
"Are you going to tell me what it is?"
"Maybe. What do I get in return?"
"Will this do?" And with that Maria moved my head closer and kissed me deeply.
"I think so." I said after we broke apart. "I got us tickets to a concert. And we get to go backstage and everything."
"How did you get your hands on those?" Maria asked slightly shocked.
"Well, who do we know that's in a band?"
"Sonic. I should have known. See what cool things having friends gets you?"
"I think it's more you being my girlfriend, but yeah." Then a rare thing happened, my stomach growled.
"Never heard that from you before." Maria said about as surprised as I was.
"I know right? Good thing neither of us has to cook breakfast."
"Whose making fun of whose cooking now?"
"You know that wasn't my point, I love your cooking. Now let's go downstairs before I become the only immortal person to die of hunger." I helped Maria out of bed and we walked down to the breakfast room. The food was standard fare, nothing too special. I had a chocolate donut and Maria had a toasted bagel. After that we got our beach stuff ready and left. It took about 15 minutes to walk down to the beach with all the stuff restricting how fast we could go.
"You go find us a spot while I change." Maria said handing me what she was carrying.
"Anywhere specific?" I asked.
"Preferably somewhere where the girls are wearing clothes."
"Good idea." I said as Maria entered the changing tent. I didn't need to change since I walked over already wearing my swim trunks. I scanned the beach and found a spot that was close to the water but not too close so the waves wouldn't hit us. I stuck our umbrella in the sand and set our chairs under it. I sat down on mine and put my sunglasses on and waited for Maria. She was there a few minutes later.
"Am I still looking good?" She asked as her body blocked out the sun a bit.
"As hot as ever." I answered.
"Good. Okay, I'm going to go swim now." She said cheerily, but I grabbed her arm and stopped her.
"Not without putting on some suntan lotion you're not." I said.
"Suntan lotion? I've never heard of that before. What does it do?"
"It protects your skin from the sun's rays so it doesn't get burned. And believe me, that hurts, I learned the hard way."
"Then I think I want some."
"Good choice. Okay, hold out your hands." She did and I squirted some lotion into them. "You do your front and I'll get your back."
"Okay." She said as she started rubbing her arms. I started on her shoulders and slowly moved down her back, careful not to remove any of her clothing. I ended up on her tail and I gave it a little pinch. Maria gave out a cute yelping sound and turned around to see me on the verge of a laughing fit.
"Shadow, what was that for?" She asked putting her hands on her hips. Oooh, she looks so hot right now.
"I thought it would be funny and it was." I answered truthfully.
"Then it's only fair that I get to pinch yours." Maria said with a devious looking grin. She took a step towards me and I took a step back. Then another step and another. Then, before I could think, she jumped on me and started grabbing for my tail. We rolled around in the sand for a few seconds until she finally got it. "Gotcha!"
"Nicely played Maria." We both heard from the direction of our feet. We sat up to see Rouge and Knuckles standing there in their swimwear.
"Rouge, is G.U.N. making you follow us? Because if they are, Maria and I will fall off the grid so fast not even Tails and the Chaotix combined could find us." I said half serious, half joking.
"Come on Shad, you know me. I wouldn't do that even if it was a direct order from the president. Besides, I quit a few weeks ago anyway." That was news to me.
"Why?" I asked curiously.
"It wasn't any fun without you around. And I couldn't convince Knuxy here to join with them."
"So what are you doing for work now?" Maria asked.
"I restarted my modeling career I once had briefly. Luckily nothing in the industry had drastically changed."
"You should do well, you're very pretty Rouge." Maria complemented.
"Thanks hon, but you're good looking too. Don't forget that."
"Okay, I wont." Maria said feeling good about what Rouge said. I took the silence to cut in and ask my own question.
"And you're okay with this Knuckles?"
"Why wouldn't I be? I get to date a super hot model." Rouge jabbed hin in the ribs for that but she was smiling when she did it. "By the way, have either of you seen any of the Super Emeralds? We've been looking for them ever since a tornado blew through Angel Island."
"Nope, sorry." I said. "But I'll be on the lookout now. What do they look like?"
"Like Chaos Emeralds just bigger."
"Got it."
"Well, it was nice seeing you again Maria. You take care of Shadow for me will ya?" Rouge said getting ready to leave.
"I will, don't you worry. Are you guys going to be at the concert tonight?"
"I don't think so, but you two have fun. See you later Shadow." Rouge said taking off with Knuckles running after her."
"See you." I said to no use. Then my tail got pinched again. "Oh, it's on now."